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Disruptive innovation isn’t a new concept and Brand Disruption Isn’t About Only Product. In fact, brand disruption is such a modern-day mainstay that, in many ways, it has become our singular goal. But as more and more companies compete to create the most revolutionary product, other opportunities for brand disruption have gone virtually unnoticed.

There are many ways to be brand disruptive that don’t revolve around your product.

Brand Disruption Isn’t About Only Product

It’s important to remember that your product and your brand are not the same thing. You can have the most innovative product, but still have a brand that falls flat. So what makes a brand disruptive? Well, that’s a meaty question with endless answers, but the long and short of it is this: stop emulating and start innovating.

It can be tempting to try to keep pace with your competitors and base decisions off of what you see others around you doing. But in the world of brand design, being a copycat can be the kiss of death.

There’s no greater example of this than the recent trend of brand “authenticity.” Authenticity started as a disruptive move—baring personal thoughts and ideas instead of always presenting a polished sales campaign was nothing short of revolutionary. Until, suddenly, it wasn’t.

Rather than actually being authentic to their brand, companies were approaching authenticity as if it were a formula. Companies started copying (sometimes blatantly) the authentic efforts of others. A strategy that, by the very nature of authenticity, was doomed before it even got off the ground. Now, sharp consumers can spot false authenticity from a mile away.

If you want to be a disruptive brand, stop replicating what others are doing. Focus on creating an interesting narrative and unique aesthetic. Do the work upfront to design a brand that is truly innovative and then really embrace it.

Your Customer Experience

Today’s customers are more understanding than ever so managers need know Brand Disruption Isn’t About Only Product. Their expectations are high and patience is low. Yet, many brands (and even entire industries) still fail to deliver a positive customer experience.

This is good news for brands. There is almost endless room for improvement when it comes to customer experience. And you can tap into this opportunity no matter what industry you’re in. All it takes is an awareness of your customers’ frustrations and a bit of creative problem solving.

Enter Levi’s customization and tailoring shop. Launched last year, the shop is designed to take the frustration out of the notoriously difficult denim buying process. Customers can take advantage of everything from on-site tailoring and repairs to custom distressing, monogramming, and painting. If that still doesn’t cut it, you can commission a completely custom pair of denim, made from scratch by the shop’s custom tailors. The result is a truly customer-first experience.

Of course, it requires some pretty hefty infrastructure to provide this level of customization, but what’s interesting about this approach isn’t necessarily the list of offerings—it’s the principle behind them. Levi’s took one of the most common customer complaints in the industry and found a way to solve it. That’s customer experience at it’s finest.

Listen to your audience. I mean really listen. Don’t assume you know what your customers want. Ask them. Seriously. Seek feedback from your actual users. Learn about their frustrations, both with your industry in general and your company specifically. What you hear might not be what you expected. At times, it might even be hard to swallow. But it’s the most valuable feedback you’ll ever get.

Your Company Culture

We often think of the consumer side when we talk about brand disruption. But changing the way you manage your business internally can be just as disruptive.

Take Basecamp, for example. In recent years, Basecamp has become widely recognized for their innovative business practices. In summer 2018, Basecamp announced a hiring freeze. Unconventionally, the freeze had nothing to do with budget shortages or other business woes. In fact, their business was doing better than ever. So, why the freeze? Where most businesses might see increased demand and profit growth as the impetus for expansion, Basecamp saw it as an opportunity to maintain their size and invest more in their employees.

And they have the benefits to prove it. Employees are encouraged to work remotely, but all salaries are based on San Francisco (read: the highest of the high) market rates. When profits grow year-to-year, 25% of that growth is distributed among employees. Add to that 30-hour workweeks every summer, a one-month sabbatical every three years, all-expenses-paid family vacations, 16 weeks of parental leave, community supported agriculture memberships, and $100 a month for both fitness and massages—the list is dizzying.

Of course, Basecamp isn’t the only company out there making waves with their company culture. As the business landscape continues to evolve, employers are getting more and more experimental, trying everything from company-wide sabbaticals and unlimited PTO to education stipends and student loan repayments.

Innovative policies like these are a simple way to make a big impact. When you value your employees as much as you value your customers, the results can be far reaching—potentially disrupting the status quo for entire industries.

There’s (obviously) no formula to being a disruptive brand.

True brand disruption takes creativity, objectivity, and curiosity. There are no step-by-step instructions. But the best advice we can give you is this: stop trying to get noticed. Do the work. Listen. Learn. Alleviate pain points. Invest in your brand or your audience or your employees. The rest will follow suit.

We all have that one friend. You know, the one who turns even the most mind-numbing story (laundry day, or a trip to the grocery store, for example) into a humorous, memorable saga. That friend takes you on a journey— they know how to build suspense. Where to pepper in the punchlines. How to keep you captivated. And, according to Forbes, that friend may hold the golden key to more effective marketing: Reasons Marketing Firms Need More Storytelling.

We’ve written about the importance of brand storytelling before. But how else can you use stories to connect with your employees and customers alike? According to Noah Zandan, the CEO and co-founder of Quantified Communications, every memo, email, and report that comes across your desk has storytelling potential. Whether you’re writing up the notes from your last staff meeting, or sending out an update for your stakeholders, adding a bit of narrative flair will make the facts and stats up to 22 times more memorable: Reasons Marketing Firms Need More Storytelling.

“Stories need to be the backbone of your company’s personality.:Reasons Marketing Firms Need More Storytelling”

You might be asking yourself how you can take something as simple as an inter-departmental email and give it the flair of a New York Times bestseller. If that’s the case, consider thinking smaller.

“Your annual investor day may not be feature film material, and your sustainability report may not be the next Great American Novel,” Zandan writes. “But if you wrap your results into short narratives introducing the people behind the initiatives and detailing the efforts that led to your successes (or shortcomings), your audience will be able to visualize those initiatives and efforts themselves.”

Visualization is critical, especially when you’re discussing things like abstractions, numbers, and analysis. Professor Jennifer A. McCabe’s research shows that stories work as mnemonic— or memory— devices because they organize abstract materials into a meaningful structure. Humans retain sensory information: things we can see, hear, feel, smell, and touch. Stories give us a way to connect our senses with something we would otherwise only be able to imagine.

If you want to be memorable, boost employee morale, and inspire customer loyalty, stories need to be the backbone of your company’s personality.

But what is a story?

According to Robert McKee and Thomas Gerace, authors of Storynomics: Story-Driven Marketing in the Post-Advertising World, “Story, like art and music, is a word you think you understand until you try to define it.” Though most of us have fond memories of childhood bedtime stories, or the family legends told time and time again around a dinner table, we’re less familiar with the mechanics of setting, characters, and narrative arc.

So what makes a story? Dr. David Aaker recommends that marketing objectives should get back to the basics: “A signature story is a “once upon a time” narrative. It describes an event, or an experience, or a process, and it has embedded in it the potential of having emotion and attention – and surprise and interesting characters.”

In other words, stories need to have recognizable, relatable characters in easy-to-visual settings who overcome challenges. Compelling stories build tension and lead to a turning point that results in growth or resolution.

Consider the following examples:

Each year, millions of Americans are impacted by hunger and food insecurity. 1 in 6 children doesn’t know where they’ll get their next meal. Northerly is answering the call to action by donating to local food banks. We’re here to combat hunger and feed the world.

Growing up on his family farm in Saskatchewan, Clayton Wolfe, the CEO of Northerly, always knew there would be a warm bowl of rolled oats on the breakfast table. During those early mornings, rising before the sun to help his dad tend the grain fields, he discovered his passion for farming was rooted in wanting to feed the world. Now, armed with his innovative John Deeres and the latest advances in agricultural tech, he’s made it his mission to give back. Northerly’s donation program wants to feed each of the 1 in 6 children who don’t know where their next meal is coming. With your help, children facing food insecurity can rely on a warm bowl of rolled oats to get them through the day.

While both of these texts address hunger in America and introduce a give-back program, the second one paints a picture. It gives the reader a character to connect with. The second example also engages the reader’s senses so they can feel those early mornings and practically taste the oats.

What makes storytelling so effective?

Early on, human societies had to learn to share information to survive. Which plants were poisonous? Where was the closest water? When was the perfect time to plant or harvest? Did these ancient societies rely on charts and graphs to document their successes and failures? No. They told stories. We know that stories convey the culture, history, and values of a society.

And according to researchers, they actually rewire our brains and impact the way we process information. Strong storytelling resonates with our emotions and opens us up to empathy and connection.

Stories connect with our emotions

Think about your favorite movie. Whether you laugh, cry, or white-knuckle the arms of your chair, there’s a good chance the story makes you feel something. Storytelling is a fundamental human experience that helps us create connections and relate to one another in today’s complex, modern society.

Plus, as experiments like the Significant Objects Project have shown, we value things we can connect to emotionally through stories. In 2009, the researchers behind the project hypothesized that people would pay more for actual junk if they connected that junk with a compelling story. For their first “volume,” they purchased $128.74 worth of items from thrift stores and paired each item with a creative writer. After giving each item a fictional story (written in any style or voice), that same junk sold via eBay for $3,612.51.

Value didn’t increase because the writers claimed they had the newest, flashiest, highest-quality flannel balls and candle holders. Instead, the writers gave each object a story; something the buyers could connect with emotionally. The site’s founders, Joshua Glenn and Rob Walker, claim, “Stories are such a powerful driver of emotional value that their effect on any given object’s subjective value can actually be measured objectively.” We can see the impact of stories on relatively worthless bits and baubles. Imagine the impact they’ll have on your products and services.

Keep in mind that not every story needs to be a heartfelt tear-jerker to be impactful. In fact, overemphasizing that particular mode of storytelling may hurt your brand’s overall success. Realistically, it takes multifaceted stories to reach the biggest audience. There’s a whole range of emotions. The stories you tell should strike as many notes as possible.

Stories build empathy and connection

Empathy is our ability to relate to one another— to experience what another person feels, or to “walk in another’s shoes,” so to speak. It relies on emotional connections. Essentially, empathy is the antithesis to formulaic, manipulative marketing. It requires brands to support and believe in human-to-human, rather than just company-to-consumer, connection.

And, according to Psychology Today, stories play an important role in building empathy and creating these connections. Research shows that reading fiction lights up the same brain networks as real, lived experiences. So, when you tell a compelling story about how your product or service improves lives, the reader’s brain experiences that story as if they are using your product or service.

Reading stories also plays a vital role in what psychologists call Theory of Mind (ToM for short).

Theory of Mind

Theory of mind refers to “the ability to attribute mental states — beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, knowledge, etc. — to oneself and others and to understand that others have beliefs, desires, and intentions that are different from one’s own.” In other words, ToM helps us differentiate between ourselves and others.

According to Raymond Mar, a psychologist at York University in Canada, reading fiction improves an individual’s ability to understand what other people are doing, thinking, and feeling. Mar explained that when we engage with a story, our brains automatically put us in the character’s shoes. We’re able to experience the world through new perspectives.

Empathy in marketing: Empathy allows brands and marketing firms to build an emotional connection with their audience.

Forbes contributor Rebecca Vogels writes, “Empathy allows brands and marketing firms to build an emotional connection with their audience, to engage the people who use their products in real conversations and to inspire connection.” And today’s consumers crave connection. The Harvard Business Review found that emotionally-connected customers are more loyal and spend more than other customers.

Vogels re-emphasizes this point, claiming, “Even something as small as, ‘this brand understands my lifestyle,’ or ‘this brand understands how I consume media’ can begin a relationship, and a relationship with a brand means a customer is likely not just to buy from that brand but to return to them repeatedly.”

Storytelling shows what you do, not just what you sell.

Again, would you rather read a chart outlining the specs and energy-saving potential of solar panels? Or would you prefer a colorful, engaging account of how solar panels changed an elderly homeowner’s life when she was struggling to pay her rising electric bill? Stories allow you to get beyond what you sell, and explain the where, why, what, and how of your business.

This is particularly important when considering that today’s consumers are more likely to support companies they view as sustainable, ethical, socially responsible, and making a positive impact in the world. A 2017 Forbes report outlines the four major qualities that millennials look for in companies:

They want companies to actively invest in the betterment of society and the solution of social problems.

Consumers want companies that prioritize “making an impact” on the world around them.

They want companies to be open and honest about their efforts — and to be public about their pro-social initiatives.

Finally, millennials want companies to involve their customers in their good works. They want an opportunity to give back — whether it’s with a gift of their time or their money.

What better way to show this growing group of consumers what your company does than through storytelling?

Stories also help employees connect with company missions

Remember, we’re not just talking about the potential for stories to connect brands with customers. Jackie Biederman of Conscious Company believes stories also play a crucial role in creating strong employee-consumer relationships.

“I spent part of my career in management at a Fortune 500 medical device company.” she writes. “But annually, we’d have an event where employees would hear stories from patients themselves. This is where real connection happened…. After these meetings, the mood within the company changed. Employees felt valued by seeing how our work and long hours made an impact on real people.”

It’s true. Today’s consumers want companies to prove how their efforts impact the world. They’re more likely to connect with your mission than your product. But the same can be said of today’s workers. A 2017 report found that 68% of millennials want to make a positive difference in the world, 81% said a successful business needs to have a genuine purpose and more than one-third define success as positively impacting society.

Your company has a unique story to tell, and telling it well will help you stand out:Reasons Marketing Firms Need More Storytelling

Every day, millions of brands are vying for your customers’ attention. And they all have a story to tell. But only you have your story to tell. All of this goes to show that storytelling is no longer optional— it needs to be the backbone of every meaningful communication. Untold stories are missed opportunities for marketing firms to build lasting, authentic connections with employees and customers. Instead of consumers, you’ll cultivate a community that’s as invested in your success as you are. Remember, not every story is about branding, but every story told needs to support your brand voice.

“The secret to the campaign’s success was that it required participation from millions of people around the world. ” How User Generated Content Works

In 2012 Pete Frates, a lifelong athlete and previous professional baseball player in Europe, was diagnosed with ALS. He was 27 years old. ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects the neurons responsible for motor control. Despite its severity, it has no treatment and no cure for How User Generated Content Works.

How user generated content supports finding a cure

Pete’s mom Nancy recalls that upon hearing his diagnosis, Pete took charge. “6 hours later, after diagnosis, we’re sitting around having a family dinner.” She says in her TEDTalk. “Then our leader, Pete, set the vision and talked to us just like we were his new team.”

“He goes, ‘We’re not looking back, we’re looking forward.’” Nancy remembers on the TED stage. “‘What an amazing opportunity we have to change the world.’” Nobody could have known then that Pete’s vision would give rise to the Ice Bucket Challenge, a viral campaign that raised $115 Million for ALS research in its first year.

Five years later, celebrities and influencers around the world have posted their Ice Bucket Challenge videos. The funds they’ve raised contributed to the discovery of new genes, new treatments, and new hope for the ALS community. Plus, the Frates family turned a relatively unknown, underfunded, and under-researched disease into a household name and a viral hashtag.

What we can learn from the Ice Bucket Challenge

Would the Ice Bucket Challenge have been such a success if the Frates family hired a professional film crew and churned out their own ice bucket challenge videos, day after day? Absolutely not. The secret to the campaign’s success was that it required participation from millions of people around the world.

It’s no secret that the digital age has created an obsession with content: social media hosts countless photos, videos, statues, and links to endless articles. Companies produce content at breakneck speed to stay relevant and reach consumers on an infinite number of channels, platforms, and touch points. And not just any content will suffice. Everything needs to be fresh, relevant, and of course, authentic. Still, according to Beckon Research, just 5% of posts receive 90% of consumers’ attention. That means for every 20 pieces of original content companies create, only 1 gets people to slow their scroll and engage so How User Generated Content Works.

Only 1 in 20 pieces of original content gets a notable amount of customer engagement

One thing we can learn from the Ice Bucket Challenge is that attention equals awareness. And one of the best ways to generate attention (instead of turning your copy department into a publishing agency of unread blog posts) is to harness the power of user generated content.

What is user generated content?

User generated content (UGC) appears everywhere, every day. In its simplest form, UGC refers to content created by the people who know your brand best— its fans. Using UGC allows you to outsource content creation to users, who in turn promote your brand and raise awareness about your products and services. Most often, UGC is visual and connected to a social media account, though it can also refer to blogs and long-form product reviews.

“Everyday people have become the world’s greatest content creators”

And as technology and social media continue to expand, so do the potential channels for UGC. Damien Mahoney, the co-founder and CEO of Stackla, notes in a recent Forbes article: “Thanks to the ubiquity of smartphones and social networks, everyday people have become the world’s greatest content creators, capturing and sharing their unvarnished brand experiences in real time. And, as it turns out, this is exactly the type of content people actually want to see and interact with: user-generated content (UGC).”

What are the benefits of user generated content?

With a whole society built around self-publishing and word of mouth promotion, UGC has earned its place as marketing’s next big thing. But why are these campaigns so successful?

Tapping into UGC is free

Whether we’re snapping photos of our latte art or live-tweeting shade through the Game of Thrones series finale, self-publishing has become a part of our everyday lives. In fact, between Facebook, Instagram, Instagram Stories, Flickr, Snapchat, and WhatsApp, we post a staggering 1.8 billion images every day. With so many people telling so many stories, it’s no wonder that organic conversations about brands (and more importantly, brand experiences) have snowballed.

Best of all? Those conversations don’t cost a dime. Compared to traditional advertising methods, which are increasingly expensive while generating fewer returns, UGC is a free resource. Whether you decide to reblog, retweet, or more actively curate the content, you’re not paying for expensive photo shoots and video editing. Plus, studies have shown that UGC amplifies the impact of your paid advertising. According to a CrowdTap report, word of mouth (including UGC) can boost the impact of paid advertising by as much as 15%.

It is automatically authentic

Today’s consumers aren’t looking for picture perfect, airbrushed content. In fact, studies show that most millennials (who are quickly becoming the most significant consumer demographic) distrust overt advertisements. 63% of consumers said they’d rather buy from a company they consider to be authentic over a competitor.

Today’s digital natives crave authenticity, and they’re not afraid to clap back against something they deem disingenuous. For example, Pepsi’s 2018 ad starring Kendall Jenner. In trying to play to relevant social themes, many believe the company grossly misstepped by using protest imagery to sell soda. The outcry on Twitter was brutal enough that Pepsi pulled the ad and issued an official apology.

User generated content invites customers into the brand story

Compare this to Coca-Cola’s recent “Share a Coke” campaign, and you can see the difference. While both ad campaigns called for unity and peace, Coke invited its users to contribute to the conversation. Within the first year, Coke’s fans shared more than 500,000 photos using the #ShareaCoke hashtag. The campaign became one of the most successful in Coke’s marketing history, precisely because it encouraged its consumers to become brand storytellers.

Today’s consumers value self-expression, storytelling, and personal connection. This may be why Tint, in 2016, wrote, “[UGC is] a tool that can be used to create trust and a sense of authenticity amongst your website visitors and social media followers, and in time, it can help your brand to create an engaged and loyal community.”

Consumers trust each other more than they trust advertising

Word of mouth advertising has always been a powerful tool when it comes to brand awareness. Now, in the digital age, those conversations between family and friends have global reach and impact. More than ever, consumers are looking for “social proof,” or endorsement from another living, breathing human being.

As many as 92% of people trust a recommendation by another person (even if they’re a stranger) over an advertisement from a brand. Statistically, users will repeatedly ignore the same “sponsored” ad on a site but might click through if a friend shares it. UGC works as social proof, with everyone that’s engaging with your brand online essentially vouching for you and your products.

Of course, UGC comes with its own unique risks

Getting permission to use content

In the internet age, when we share content with the click of a button, understanding intellectual property rights is trickier than ever. Does the content belong to the public? To the user? To the company that’s been tagged? Properly managing the legal rights to photos is crucial. Be sure to always get permission from the content’s owner before blasting it across your website or social media. Companies that fail to do so may find themselves in the same hot water as Crocs did in 2015.

When #hashtags become #bashtags

As with any ad campaign, there’s the potential for UGC to backfire. For many, McDonald’s 2012 Twitter campaign #McDStories serves as a cautionary tale. Hoping to elicit heartwarming stories, McDonald’s called for Twitter to share their most memorable McDonald’s stories. The results ranged from humorous to downright disgusting. Though they pulled the campaign within two hours, the hashtag continued to gain steam, demonstrating just how difficult it can be to slow down a runaway UGC train. you need to be verse on How User Generated Content Works

“Learn to leverage it all: the good, the bad, and the ugly”

During this most recent Memorial Day Weekend, the U.S. Army experienced similar backlash. However, instead of pulling the campaign, they turned their #bashtag moment into an opportunity to engage with their community of veterans and families more deeply.

The conversation began after the U.S. Army tweeted a video of Pfc. Nathan Spencer talking about how service changed his life for the better. According to the 10-second clip, the army allowed Spencer to serve something greater than himself; to give to others and protect loved ones. The follow-up tweet asked a simple question: “How has serving impacted you?”

They received thousands of responses that painted a devastating picture of veteran support systems and the costs of war. In response, the U.S. Army thanked those who shared their stories, vowed to take care of its members, and shared resources for those who are struggling. That’s a token on How User Generated Content Works.

The lesson for UGC marketing? It’s crucial that brands learn to leverage it all: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Today’s users appreciate when their feedback is heard and admire responsiveness and authenticity.

UGC allows brands to be socially-engaged and up-to-speed in a fast-paced world

In today’s digital age, content needs to be socially-responsive and on trend. Brands no longer have the luxury of mapping out months- or years-long ad campaigns. Instead, brands that want to keep current with their customers need to invite them to join the conversation by tapping into the power of User Generated Content.

The power of UGC is easy to see,” according to Tint writer Jose Angelo Gallegos. “And there’s no doubt that we’ll be seeing much, much more of it in the coming years as brands tap into the power of their audiences and take a step back from pushy sales tactics.”

It’s no surprise that Personalized Online Marketing has become one of the most effective ways for businesses to promote themselves and drive revenue. The digital world bombards today’s consumers with an unreal number of ads every single day. And most people are increasingly skeptical of advertisers and overt sales pitches. We’ve already talked about how the strongest marketing tactics rely on building an emotional connection between marketers and their audience. Personalized marketing creates an audience of one, allowing marketers to break through the noise, increase trust, and drive sales.

Imagine that you’re walking down a busy city street. As you near a bus station, the screen on the side of the shelter lights up. Its processor collects data from the cell phone in your pocket, greets you by name, and displays a personalized ad for your favorite brand of toothpaste. Sound like something out of a Black Mirror episode? These tailored billboards were actually inspired by the Tom Cruise classic, Minority Report. And they’re set to roll out across Europe in the coming years. Bidooh, the innovative advertising company that spearheaded the project, aims to integrate its technology in 3,000 screens across Eastern and Central Europe within three years.

A recent survey by Infosys showed that Personalized Online Marketing has an impact on what 86% of consumers purchase. As many as 25% admit that personalization “significantly influences” buying decisions. Thanks in large part to these numbers, creating an entirely personalized customer experience has become a top priority for many companies.

The role of data in personalized marketing

Eric Siegel, a consultant and the chairman of a conference called Predictive Analytics World, notes: “We’re living through a golden age of behavioral research. It’s amazing how much we can figure out about how people think now.” In the pre-digital age, marketing was grounded on experience, instinct, and speculation. Now, data allows marketers to see into the minds of their consumers before, during, and after each advertising campaign.

Using data tracking and analytics, marketers today learn their customers’ preferences, behaviors, and tendencies. They know if you tend to buy your groceries at 6 pm on Saturday, or before work on Wednesday.

And, thanks to sophisticated data-mining, they know what you buy, from where, and when. Plus machine learning and artificial intelligence track what ads get their customers’ attention, and what goes unread, allowing successive waves of ads to be even more targeted. With smart devices and location tracking services, companies can even track customer behavior off the internet. Unless you’ve left it at home or taken steps to disable the function, your smartphone knows where you’ve been, when you were there, and how long you spent.

How is all of this information useful?

One of the major tenets of modern marketing is to know your audience. Without a solid understanding of who you’re trying to appeal to, many marketing efforts fall flat. Imagine for a moment that you’re the Marketing Director for just one, common household item: Neosporin. Most households need antibiotic ointment for cuts and scrapes, but why they need it varies.

If you’re marketing to a single, college-aged demographic, you might emphasize how Neosporin should be a staple in your [insert outdoor activity here] kit. If you’re marketing to families with small children, you might emphasize how Neosporin reduces the chances of scarring, or how the new formula is pain-free for kids’ sensitive skin.

Data allows companies and brands to launch more precise ad campaigns, using past behavior to predict future responses. In fact, most major retailers have a “predictive analytics” department, which helps them understand both consumers’ shopping and personal habits, track buying patterns, and note changes or disruptions.

“When it comes to behavioral targeting, Amazon is undoubtedly number one.”

Many big brands like Coca Cola, Nike, and Cadbury are taking Personalized Online Marketing to the next level. But when it comes to behavioral targeting, Amazon is undoubtedly number one. Their personalized site content delivers dynamic, data-driven recommendations in real-time, while email marketing campaigns suggest “frequently bought together” bundles and remind you to continue where you left off if you leave an item in your cart too long. Plus many of the e-commerce giant’s favorite customer features, like the Wishlist, actually give the company more insight into what their customers want and how to deliver it.

When personalized Online marketing goes too far

Not all personalization, however, is created (or received) equally. Target’s now-infamous pregnancy coupon incident shows the consequences of taking data-driven marketing too far. In his article, “How Companies Learn Your Secrets,” Charles Duhigg notes that new parents are a retailer’s holy grail. “Most shoppers don’t buy everything they need at one store,” he explains. “Instead, they buy groceries at the grocery store and toys at the toy store, and they visit Target only when they need certain items they associate with Target.”

Childbirth, however, disrupts typical buying habits. Exhausted new parents are more likely to buy groceries, toys, and cleaning supplies at the same store— if they’ve been primed to do so ahead of time through targeted advertising. Target decided to market directly to women entering their second trimester of pregnancy in an attempt to influence future buying behaviors.

“We knew that if we could identify them in their second trimester, there’s a good chance we could capture them for years,” Target’s statistician Andrew Pole told Duhigg in their 2012 interview. “As soon as we get them buying diapers from us, they’re going to start buying everything else too. If you’re rushing through the store, looking for bottles, and you pass orange juice, you’ll grab a carton. Oh, and there’s that new DVD I want. Soon, you’ll be buying cereal and paper towels from us, and keep coming back.”

One store outside Minneapolis had to deal with an angry father who brought in a mailer addressed to his teenage daughter. The personalized ads included deals on maternity wear, baby clothes, and nursery furniture. When the manager called to apologize a few days later, the father seemed sheepish. “I had a talk with my daughter,” he said. “It turns out there’s been some activities in my house I haven’t been completely aware of. She’s due in August. I owe you an apology.”

This story went viral in 2012, prompting many to ask the question: how are companies collecting and using information? What’s the difference between Amazon recommending Neosporin the day after you buy a mountain bike and Target sending you nursery deals after you buy prenatal vitamins and cocoa-butter lotion?

Transparency is key

The issue with data-driven personalized marketing is that many consumers worry that their privacy has been violated. Forbes staffer Kashmir Hill cheekily compares it to browsing through someone’s social media before a first date: “Even if you’ve fully stalked the person on Facebook and Google beforehand, pretend like you know less than you do so as not to creep the person out.”

However, a 2015 study by the Journal of Retailing found that overt data-collection (or letting consumers know up front exactly how and why you’re collecting their information) leads to higher click-through rates and more trust in personalized marketing efforts. The Harvard Business Review reported similar findings, noting that trust enhances the positive effects of using personal information in ways consumers deem acceptable. “As a general rule of thumb,” they write, “we suggest that marketers at least be willing to provide information about data-use practices upon request.” These small disclosures go a long way towards cultivating trust between companies and consumers.

Personalized marketing should add value to the customer experience

While it seems evident that targeted marketing is here to stay, there are still guidelines for how best to practice personalization. A recent analysis by PostFunnel emphasizes one thing: “Done well, personalization should add value for your visitors, helping them find what they are looking for or guide them in their journeys. Personalization ‘just because you can,’ on the other hand, is never a good idea.”

What if a vending machine fail was the key to one of your brand’s most successful marketing campaigns? This is exactly what Orangina set out to accomplish with their #ShakeTheDispenser campaign. In 2017, the iconic soft drink company installed custom-built vending machines at La Defense and Lille Europe in France. These machines, which were designed to trap cans as they were vending, required users to shake them to free their drink. They even egged buyers on, prompting them to shake harder if they weren’t getting aggressive enough. Hence “Growing of Experiential Online Marketing.

“They may forget what you said — but they will never forget how you made them feel.”—Carl W. Buehner

The result? Over 48 hours, Orangina raised awareness for their new brand signature: Shake the World. And customers’ initial frustrations became a viral opportunity to share their experiences and love for the product.so doing… Growing of Experiential Online Marketing?

This is a prime example of experiential marketing

Essentially, experiential marketing is marketing that creates immersive, interactive experiences. Also referred to as engagement marketing, it helps consumers get to know your brand, product, or service. An experience can be as small as a well-told story or as large as an international “easter egg” hunt for the Iron Throne.

They can be events like Ikea’s in-store sleepover, or installations like Volkswagon’s piano staircase. It’s all about creating a unique experience that appeals to the attendees’ emotions and senses. Orangina’s “broken” vending machines worked because they encouraged consumers to live Orangina’s brand message.

As Caroline Goldstein, former staff writer for Fundera, notes in a 2019 article:

“At its heart, experiential marketing is a marketing strategy geared toward promoting a brand’s message, rather than focusing solely on selling the brand’s product. And where traditional tactics (think print ads, TV and radio commercials, and billboards) market products to a passive consumer, experiential marketing encourages active participation with that brand by engaging as many of the participants’ senses as possible: hence Orangina’s “broken” vending machine, Lean Cuisine’s #WeighThis installation, and Ikea U.K.’s in-store sleepover.”

Events, pop-ups, installations, and even interactive sites all promote brand visibility, generate excitement organically, and lead to more word of mouth (WOM) hype than traditional forms of advertising. How likely are you to talk about a commercial over an experience you’ve had? Plus, studies show that experiential marketing may boost brand loyalty. In fact, 65% of brands report a positive correlation between sales and Growing Experiential Online Marketing.

Why experiential marketing works

These sorts of interactive, immersive experiences are becoming more and more important because of several key factors. First and foremost, the digital landscape is noisy. Today’s consumers are more adept than ever at tuning out. Considering that the average person sees upwards of 5,000 ads every single day, it’s no surprise that many have learned to ignore them. Plus advertisers have to overcome the rising prevalence of ad-blocking plugins and ad-free streaming services. Creativity is key to breaking through the noise and getting your brand noticed.

Another reason this type of marketing works is that it’s more than a sales pitch— it’s an experience. Today’s consumers are also well-informed and distrust most traditional marketing efforts. We’ve already talked about how as many as 84% of millennials don’t trust traditional advertising. That means 83.1 million Americans don’t connect with brands through traditional advertising methods.

Finally, experiential marketing works because it relies on people at your event to create the hype. Considering the effectiveness of user-generated content (UGC) and word of mouth referrals, this may be one of the more valuable aspects of experiential marketing. If your event generates enough excitement that attendees to pick up their phones and start posting, your brand gets to ride the wave of all that social sharing.

Moving beyond the generic trade show

While something as simple as a booth at a trade show or industry conference technically counts as experiential marketing, today’s most innovative brands are moving beyond that. Experiential marketing is an opportunity for your customer to live and interact with your brand’s unique message or mission. Compare the sample table at a local trade show to Anheuser-Busch’s Bud Light “Up for Whatever” weekend, and you’ll see the opportunities you miss when playing it safe.

How to harness experiential marketing

Consider partnering with local artists and influencers

If you’re working in a particular region (or across multiple regions), it can be helpful to align yourself with someone who is locally recognizable and has their own audience of loyal followers. Partnering with local and regional celebrities also means that your event or immersive experience will be broadcast across your partners’ social media channels, boosting exposure, and hopefully driving interest. Just make sure that any partnerships logically tie into your brand identity and don’t come across as gimmicky.

Keep it on-brand

Whether you’re encouraging philanthropy, installing an interactive piano staircase, or hosting pop-up beach party celebrations across the country, make sure your marketing matches your brand’s voice and mission. Knowing your target audience and ideal customers is a great starting point for determining what sort of experience to build. Once you’ve identified who you want to connect with, it will be easier to figure out how to connect. Or as Hubspot’s Braden Becker says, “Go nuts, but keep it on-brand. An experience should be memorable, but relevant to the people attending.”

Get people talking about the experience

One marker of your experiential marketing campaign’s success is how much dialogue it generates. And rightly so. According to the fourth annual EventTrack Consumer Survey, up to 71% of participants will share their experiences, either face-to-face or via social media. It’s true: experiential marketing is appealing because it happens offline. But you’ll still want to get people talking online.

Luckily, something as simple as a branded hashtag goes a long way towards building buzz and generating brand interest. Plus it gives customers an opportunity to tell their story and share your branded experience with family and friends. Make sure there are reasons for attendees to document their experience: photobooths, Snap-worthy visuals, and even offering prizes are all effective ways to keep the conversation going.

Experiential marketing is a chance to humanize your brand

Above and beyond trying to go viral or score creativity points, experiential marketing provides a unique opportunity. It lets people connect one-on-one with your brand. During a recent roundtable conversation with media researcher PSFK, Ron Faris, the general manager of NYC Digital Studio and the SNKRS App at Nike, characterized it another way. He claims, “[Experiential marketing is] about building the types of experiences that are more immersive that would make you feel the same way attending … a music festival—sparking a type of energy that goes far beyond e-commerce and a store.”

Sure, personalized emails are great, but are they as memorable as stepping into the world of a brand’s passion? Studies have shown time and again that millennials live for experiences rather than possessions. With the right planning, your brand can be one of those experiences. Not sure experiential marketing is right for your brand or industry? Creativity is the only limit for what experiential marketing can look like.

It was 2008. The market had tanked. New business was hard to find, and jobs were scarce. Kappel’s startup, Career Marketplace— an online intermediary for job seekers and job creators— was struggling. “After a few rough years and many tough decisions I was able to save the business,” Kappel reflects in a 2019 article for Entrepreneur. “But when it was all said and done, it wasn’t the economy or the job market that hurt Career Marketplace. It was my departure from common sense business principles.Why Startup Fails Lack of Branding Website .

During the most recent U.S. recession, Mike Kappel found himself in a difficult position. He was a serial entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Patriot Software Company. And he was running a failing business. In a 2018 Forbes article, Kappel recounts the lessons he learned during that time. He writes, “Nobody wants to talk about a failing small business or Why Startup Fails (Lack of Branding)Website . But I’m here to tell you that business failure is a reality.”

Each year, thousands of entrepreneurs start new businesses. Perhaps you’re one of them. If so, you already know that deciding to launch a startup is no small undertaking. You want to fill a niche in your community. Or you’re following your passion. Either way, entrepreneurship requires determination, strategy, and a strong vision.

Unfortunately, Startup Fails (Lack of Branding)Website according to the Startup Genome Report, 92% of startups fail within three years. For some industries, the odds of success are even more daunting. CB Insights found that up to 70% of tech startups fail, and 97% of consumer hardware startups die or become “zombies.” Luckily, there’s plenty we can learn from these failures.

So, why do startups fail?

It’s a big question. Entrepreneurs face countless obstacles in the modern economic landscape. Tim Chae, a General Partner at 500 Startups, traces most failures back to three factors: the market, the culture, and leadership.

The market, or failing to solve a market problem

Startup Fails Lack of Branding Website, identify consumer pain points and create products to address them. But in today’s global economy, markets change rapidly. By the time you’re ready to launch, your product may already be obsolete. Worse, maybe it was never needed in the first place. Understanding the market, your audience, and your product ensures that your startup isn’t dead on arrival.

According to an article by Inc., this knowledge may be the single most important factor in predicting startup success. They cite a report by CB Insights that found 42% of failures stem from a poor understanding of the market. The article claims, “The biggest mistake you can make as a startup founder is to create a product or service that doesn’t solve a big enough problem.”

Market readiness

The other issue that many startups face is trying to rush their market readiness. Capital is not enough to keep your startup afloat. If you launch an unprepared product, you’ll either be unable to keep up with your own growth or your startup won’t hold its weight in the public sphere. Be realistic. Know your limitations.

One cautionary tale is the GoCrossCampus (CXG) game’s incredible failure. This multiplayer strategy game was a digitized, real life Risk. Students coordinated with allies to “conquer” other college campuses. The game raised over $1.6 million in venture capital funds, had a stellar team of developers, and launched with 1,000 active users. It still failed. Why?

Company founders Hargreaves and Brimer’s felt pressure to release the product before it was ready. In an interview with Business Insider, Brimer reflects, “Looking back, many things felt so damn rushed.” The company’s momentum became their biggest problem. “We had 1,000 active users per day but had to shut down the site right around Thanksgiving. Our servers couldn’t take it.” The site stayed down for six weeks. Shortly after that, Hargreaves was named “the most hated student on Yale’s campus.”

Looking back, the founders regret launching before they knew their servers’ capacity. “We should have spent the fall working on the project and then launched in the spring.” Because they rushed the product to market, a game that the New York Times lauded as “the next Internet phenomenon” crashed and burned before take off.

Employees and company culture

CB Insights also discovered that seven of the top 20 reasons startups fail tied back to employees or company culture. From founding members to investors and employees, the entire company should align across all channels.

Part of establishing your company’s culture is creating a shared, unified vision. Where is the company going? What are you trying to accomplish? What are the tangible results of your team’s success and how can you use them to keep employees motivated? Having frequent success markers keeps your team engaged and on track.

The consequence of getting off track? A scattered, distracted team with no unifying purpose. This was ultimately what derailed MyFavorites, a startup that billed themselves as “the like button for everything.” In their postmortem, founder Steve Poland observed, “Ultimately… we all started losing interest. The team was all wondering where this was eventually going.” Detailed, achievable goals and a clear vision of the company’s future keep everybody pulling in the same direction.

Leadership

If you’re starting your own business because you want to work less, save yourself the expense and heartache. As the head of a startup, your responsibilities grow exponentially. On top of running the business and handling daily operation, you get to empower employees and create strong teams. Unfortunately, a lot of problems stem from inefficient leadership. As a company’s leader, you need to be able to predict and manage issues, while keeping realistic expectations in the face of incredible challenge.

Prepare for worst-case scenarios

Plenty of factors might derail your success before, during, and post-launch. Financial planning is important—you should always have an emergency fund on hand. But CB Insights found that money shortages comprised only two of the top 20 reasons startups fail. Changing markets, managing personnel, and PR fallout are much more likely obstacles. Planning for these is as important—if not more—as an emergency cash reserve.

Speaking from his own experience, Mike Kappel encourages business owners to run through worst-case-scenario strategies ahead of time. “Sometimes your products or services go stale and you receive an influx of negative reviews. Or, your marketing strategy might not be reeling in enough customers. You should have a business plan for small business in place to help you focus your strategy and increase traffic to your company.”

Face issues head-on

When things start to get rocky, it can be tempting to look the other way. Unfortunately, denying that your startup is in trouble won’t help anything. The faster you identify and correct issues, the sooner you can address them and turn things around. Systemic problems are like an infection: the longer you ignore them, the less likely you are to recover.

Ask for advice

You’re not the first person to face the challenge of launching a startup. Nor will you be the last. One of Kappel’s most earnest bits of advice? Ask for help from the right people. “Other small business owners have been in your shoes,” he assures. “They can lend you some of their expertise so you don’t make the same mistakes as them.” But other business owners aren’t the only resource available to you. Advice from accountants, lawyers, and even industry mentors can go a long way towards setting you on the right track, and digital marketingagencies keep your company on-brand and visible. They have years of experience and expertise to help you navigate the startup landscape.

Don’t fear failure

Advice articles for entrepreneurs blast the same sentiment again and again: “Failure is inevitable. Embrace it.” While that’s true, it should come with an addendum. Failure is only useful if you learn from it. Keeping a startup afloat is not a yes or no thing. It’s a process that requires frequent adjustments and tweaks. The startup world is full of failures, and your willingness to become one of them could be the key to your eventual success. Its certain Startup Fails Lack of Branding Website.

Who Would You Choose for Your Social Media You’ve taken the time to craft your message, polish your visuals, and launch your brand. Now how do you get it in front of your ideal audience? Considering 40% of the global population uses social media, you might want to start with channels like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and Twitter. But just posting content to your feeds isn’t necessarily enough to give your brand the edge. In fact, as of 2018, the average, organic reach for a page’s posts is less than 6%.

So how do today’s brands stay competitive and connect with their audiences? “3.028 Billion people actively use social media,” a recent article by Influencer Marketing Hub explains. “Inevitably, these people look up to influencers in social media to guide them with their decision making.”

“Today’s consumers crave authenticity. They want to build a personal relationship with brands.”Who Would You Choose for Your Social Media

Open up Instagram right now. We bet you can’t scroll for a full minute without someone promoting a brand, product, or service. From Doug the Pug posing with his Starbucks pup-kin spice latte, to that girl from your high school who’s now a famous food blogger. Social media influencers are everywhere.

Of course, brands have relied on celebrity endorsements before. Doris Day sold road rolling equipment in the 1950s. “Mean” Joe Green smiled over a Coca-Cola. For decades, the equation was simple: famous people help sell stuff. But social media has transformed the relationship between brands, consumers, and influencers. Today’s consumers crave authenticity. They want to build a personal relationship with brands.

That’s why—from outdoor apparel to fashion and food—more companies are leaning on influencers and brand ambassadors. It’s an effective way to share their values and products with the world.

But what’s the difference?

It’s common to hear the terms “influencer” and “brand ambassador” used interchangeably. But each fills a distinct role in the digital marketing space. Knowing the difference will help you choose which partnerships best benefit your brand.

Influencers

When you were a kid, and people asked what you wanted to be when you grow up, what was your answer? Veterinarian. Doctor. Firefighter. Teacher. Influencer? For the next generation of young professionals, it’s a realistic career choice. Social media gives everyday people the chance to transform themselves into personal brands. And they can do it from the comfort of their social media networks. As the Digital Marketing Institute notes, “People are turning to their favorite Instagram models, Twitter personalities, and YouTube stars for advice and recommendations on purchasing decisions.”

And the ability to build a loyal audience pays off. Influencers who have up to 1 million followers can charge $10,000 per post. And that’s pocket change for YouTube gamers with over a million viewers. Their content can come with a steep $250,000 per post price tag.

So what makes influencers tick?

Using their expertise, celebrity status, or just an uncanny ability to relate to their followers, influencers are able to, well… influence people. Influencer Marketing Hub writes that influencers are people with the power to affect others’ buying choices.

As Dazed points out, “The term is still broad, encompassing everyone from Kendall Jenner, the highest-paid model in the world, to Instagrammers with millions of followers who nobody IRL has ever heard of.”

Keep in mind that influencers have their own, established channels. That could be a gamer’s YouTube channel, a fashion blogger’s Instagram feed, or some combination of different channels. For example, many bloggers also have a well-established Instagram following. This demonstrates the importance of working with the right influencer. You could connect your brand with thousands, or even millions of people who might otherwise never see it.

Some major drawbacks?

Influencers also likely work with other brands, including competitors. Depending on your market or niche, that could be a problem.

Finally, influencers create their own content featuring your brand, product, or service. This can save you the time and effort it takes to conceptualize, design, and publish content. But, it also gives you less creative control over how your brand gets portrayed. With influencers, there are no guarantees. It’s their job to influence their audience—whether that’s for better or worse is for them to decide.

The current state of influencers

When influencers first hit the social media scene, they provided a refreshing break from highly-paid celebrity endorsements. They sprang from an intimate DIY culture. Reading their blogs, watching their videos, and seeing their pictures felt like catching up with an old friend. And tech allowed them to share these thoughts and images with millions around the world.

But now, influencers—and wannabes— have become more ubiquitous. In fact, many marketing experts believe the dog days of influencer culture are drawing to a close.

Plus influencing itself has changed. Increasingly, influencers work with PR teams to manage their image, build audiences, and connect with brands. As a result, many have lost that “real person” vibe that propelled them to fame in the first place.

The rise of micro-influencers

This may account for the recent shift to micro-influencers. Micro-influencers have around 10,000 to 500,000 followers across social media channels. They tend to have niche interests, which means their audiences are often engaged to the brink of fanaticism. Plus, they’re in every sector. From Alexandra Lerner’s work in yoga and wellness, to @hellorigby’s deep-dives on fashion and dogs.

Brand Ambassadors

Brand ambassadors, on the other hand, grow their brand alongside yours. They can be individuals, groups of people, or even fictional characters. These long-term partnerships are more collaborative and mutually-beneficial. Just try to imagine Nike without Michael Jordan. Priceline without William Shatner. Or even Frosted Flakes without Tony the Tiger.

In other words, brand ambassadors embody your brand’s values, mission, and ethics. They work to humanize your brand on social media. And as Origin points out, “They usually have some form of attachment to your product or brand, often helping to create, refine, or use it.” For example, professional athletes make excellent ambassadors for sportswear companies. Webberboss we are proud of the growth so far and we pledge to continue to do better. Offering every potential customers more than their expectation in genuine and quality brand design they long for.

But what are Instagram Stories ? If you are familiar with Snapchat, Instagram Stories won’t seem like too much of a stretch. But let’s pretend for a moment that you have no idea what we mean. Instagram Stories consist of posted content that disappears within 24 hours but is viewable to everyone in your audience.

Most of us, unless living in denial of social media, follow at least one Instagram influencer or brand that we admire. You know the page, with the perfect pictures of beautiful people and places, the witty copy and strategic hashtags (especially when promoting a brand) and the oh-so-unobtainable lifestyle. And when you snag a look at the followers, your heart sinks further. But a vast audience doesn’t have to be unobtainable and, when using Instagram Stories, there are many ways in which an individual or brand can have just that.

Now you might be wondering How Instagram Stories Can Grow Your Audience and Boost Engagement a disappearing story could make your audience grow. Well, it is—and it isn’t—that simple. Instagram Stories, when done right, can be a strategic brand move. They give your audience a glimpse into a different side of your brand and encourage engagement.

As a brand, your Instagram might be a highlight reel of your recent blog posts, company achievements, or engagements with the latest trends in your industry. Your Stories can build upon this, while giving you more creative ways to boost engagement. You can include polls for your audience, ask them questions, link to giveaways, sales or products and feature your team or consumers/members for a more broad view of your brand.

Let’s get started.

Give your followers a glimpse of reality

Social media is not known for giving a perfectly honest view of reality. Sometimes it’s a lie of omission, whereas other times it’s just a flat out lie. However, Stories allow you to show your followers how your brand operates in the background and showcase your brand practices and people.

Semrush.com puts it this way: “Personalize the experience of your viewers with behind-the-scenes Stories which help you humanize your brand and connect with your audiences at a deeper level.” One way you can do this is showing a behind the scenes look at how you create your product, how you source your material, or a small clip of the creation process. Another option is to have your founder or another team member hop on and give a tour or talk about your product/service or showcase a new event that you are hosting. When in doubt, you can always enter the conversation about an industry topic or trend that your users would find interesting.

Take advantage of polls, links, and open questions

How Instagram Stories Can Grow Your Audience and Boost Engagement Instagram Stories have a wide variety of tools not available through other aspects of Instagram. For example, the ability to ask a question of your followers and collect their answers, adding links, and creating fun or serious polls. The objective here is to make it interactive.

Stories are your opportunity to engage with consumers differently and to invite them into the discussion. You can even combine this with our first suggestion by having a member of your team open up the debate to user questions and then answering them live through a series of Stories posts.

Instagram released the polling feature in 2017 and, according to their blog: “After you’ve shared your poll, your friends and followers can immediately start voting and see real-time results. Once someone has voted on your poll, they’ll see which choice is in the lead at any given moment. And if they watch your Story again later, they’ll see the latest results.” Polling can be especially useful when launching new product options and seeing in real-time which your audience prefers. Or to inject some personality into your Stories (i.e., asking your followers if they like your founder’s new handlebar mustache or not).

Besides the polling, making use of links in Stories can make the user experience friendlier for your followers. For example, let’s say you have a sale on your top-selling products. You can make a post about it (and definitely should), but users can quickly scroll past it. To increase engagement, you can add a link to your Stories and showcase why this your best selling product. Links can also help grow your audience by introducing more people to your products/services, blog posts, and other essential aspects of your brand.

Use a variety of content (from within and without)

There may be no such thing as a free lunch, but there is such a thing as user-generated content (UGC). Featuring users via hashtags and mentions allows you to showcase people who genuinely love and use your brand. After which, these featured users are more likely to engage with your brand in the future.

The content from outside of your brand can vary greatly. You can share mentions from users, enlist the help of an Instagram Influencer, or even allow someone to take over your account. These variations ensure that you are hitting all the angles that your followers want to see. If done correctly, the content that you share feels just as on-brand as the content you create yourself. Consistency is key here.

One of the many ways to feature a specific user is to host a Takeover on your Stories. Takeovers typically include your business partnering with an influencer or another consumer that aligns with your product or the message you are trying to get across. Often, the person taking over a brand’s Stories will have a broad audience and will cross-post their work with their brand to their own followers. Such links mean that you will likely get higher brand engagement, which is a great way to cultivate organic followers. This blog from Later.com features guidelines to hosting a takeover, such as making a list of possible takeover candidates, pitching to those people, setting guidelines for content, and promoting the takeover on social channels.

Make use of keywords, hashtags, and trends

As with any good piece of content, some research is necessary. Keyword and hashtag research is a great place to start when building out your Instagram Stories. It also helps to look into general content trends that apply to the content you are pushing out. Instagram Stories makes use of this by allowing brands to mention users, pull in trending and unique hashtags, and build their stories around keywords and trends.

By using a hashtag or geolocating your post, you can increase the range of your social post and, as a result, often grow your audience. These markers draw in consumers that you might not otherwise reach and make your content go further than skipping this step does. Another great tip from the Semrush blog (linked at the beginning of this paragraph) is to make sure to tag yourself in your Stories, which can drive consumers back to your profile and lets them see what else your brand represents.

Link users back to Stories

Links are where you make it all connect. A goal of your content should be to make sure it gets in front of the people you most want to see it. One of the best ways to do this is to use your many content platforms to your advantage. Within Instagram, the easiest way to do this is to point users to your stories via your posts. It can get slightly sticky so try to follow along.

Let’s say you’re a local ice cream shop. You could start with a post about National Ice Cream Day that tells users they can find more awesome content in your Stories. When users get there, you can feature a poll of their favorite ice cream and, in the end, have users swipe up for a coupon to use in your scoop shop. These meandering links and posts help your brand stay consistent and interconnected, but it’s equally important not to overdo it. If you feel that you are oversaying something, you probably are. When linking, use your judgement and keep the experience user-friendly.

Don’t forget design

Some of the most-watched Instagram Stories are such because of how pleasing they are to the eye. Instagram’s platform is very much image-forward, which can put you behind multiple steps if you are not focused on your design. Part of this step involves storyboarding how you want your account to look. If you have the perfect grid but are abandoning the finesse in your Stories, that may be one reason why your following is lacking. But what if you don’t have an in-house designer? Sites like Canva, Easil, or PicMonkey offer Instagram Story Templates which take away the heavy-handed design work and allow you to focus on the content you want your users to see. And, of course, hiring an agency (like Savy) can further help with this crucial step and allow you to put out your best content.

Whichever path you choose, it’s important to maintain consistency. If you break your own rules, such as with a takeover, do so intentionally to avoid creating a jarring experience to your user. Templates or storyboarded design allows you to keep with a similar theme so your content can shine through.

Study your Instagram metrics

Once you’ve got the basics down, it’s time to make sure that you are utilizing your hard work to the fullest. Instagram, like most Internet-based sites, has metrics running on the backend that you can use to understand your audience better and grow it further. Interaction stats here show replies to your Story, site visits from your Story and clicks on geotags, hashtags, and mentions. These stats can be used to see Story engagement and success—making it easier to replicate for future Stories.

Discovery stats refer to mentions and follows that you garner from your Story. It can also be a significant mood boost to see how many times your Story was viewed (because who doesn’t need a mid-week pat on the back?). Lastly, Navigation stats refer to the physical path users used for your Story—back and forward taps within your Story, swipes to the next brand’s Story, and exits to your Story altogether. These stats can also help you understand where you’ve lost your audience, what content they wanted to view again, or if you did not grab their attention from the get-go.

Keep the content alive with an Instagram Stories Highlight

How Instagram Stories Can Grow Your Audience and Boost Engagement Stories indeed disappear when used in their most basic form. But there is a function called Highlight that you can use to feature your favorite Stories more permanently on your account. These Highlights are featured right above your posts, so they are often one of the first things people see when they land on your account. Strategically it is best to feature only valuable and pertinent content here. If you are running a new campaign, for example, you can switch on the Instagram Stories Archive feature and add relevant stories to your Highlights. This feature allows you to promote directly on your profile to continue the hype and engagement for your products.

Whereas consumers view your Stories in a long list of other brands that a particular user follows, clicks on your Highlights are for your brand only. The goal of Highlighting is to, well, highlight. Focus on content that you believe users should see first like current campaigns, trends, takeovers, and events. If you did your research on analytics, this is also where you can use it to see which types of stories your audience engages with the most and why.

Instagram Stories are an easy, engaging way to grow your audience

How Instagram Stories Can Grow Your Audience and Boost Engagement Whether you are an Instagram beginner or pro, Stories can help take your account and your brand to the next level by increasing your audience and brand engagement. If you still feel lost after reading the tips above, hiring an agency like Webberboss can help you work through the ins and outs of metrics, design, and copy of Stories to best engage with your target. After all, it’s no easy task to grow your followers organically, but it is well worth it in the end.

If your website is the handshake to your customers, then your content is the ice breaker – the conversation. There, you can introduce not only your craft and what sets you apart from your competitors. You can also enter the discussion on topics that keep your brand relevant. Content marketing does not have to stifle creativity.

In fact, if done right, it can do the exact opposite and help to cultivate and foster creativity, not to mention awareness for your brand. Art’s varied form—visual, applied, and performance—can make content marketing for artists slightly more complicated. As an artist, you often are your brand (your work is an extension of you after all), so things can get personal very quickly. Yet you also have the advantage to make your content more creative, unique, and enticing to an audience.

But let’s start at the beginning.

What is content marketing anyway?

At its most basic, content marketing involves creating, publishing, and distributing content to a targeted audience to generate leads. This helps expand your market, increase sales, and foster brand awareness.

Content marketing is not just a blog, though. Just posting a piece on your Squarespace or LinkedIn is not going to garner the attention that you want for your company.

If you are a marketer or business owner attempting to up their content game, you likely have come across countless lists (like this, this, and this) with advice for better content creation and marketing. But when it comes to content marketing for artists, we believe the difference is in the details. So we’ve compiled our own favorite tricks and best practices. At first glance, this list may seem overwhelming. Especially if you are focused on building your company. Although it’s tempting to push content marketing aside as a low-priority item, its impact often has far-reaching positive consequences for your brand. So let’s break it down.

Research keywords and trends

Researching keywords and trends involves finding those buzzwords, keywords, and current conversation trends to help boost your content. You can almost think of this step as the outline of a term paper. An essential element to remember here is to integrate these keywords into your content seamlessly. The harder you try to make content hit the mark, the further away it will be. Using art as an example, some keywords for your industry could be paint, gallery, pop art, oil painting, or modern art. A great resource to begin your research is WordStream, where you can see keyword trends for most any topic.

Know your SEO

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is where your keywords come into play again, but it goes beyond this. Certain strategies allow your blog to be found more readily. Build a solid foundation with keywords, images, links—both inbound and outbound—mentions, and consistency (in posting times per week, for example). By staying up-to-date on SEO changes for Google and other search engines, you can also tweak your content to be more relevant and searchable. The Google Algorithm Update History is a great place to start.

Be familiar with analytics

Analytics is the bane of many bloggers’ and marketers’ existence.Why You Need Content Marketing It may seem like a constant uphill battle to check your page views, readership, and click-through rate (CTR). But it’s an essential part of understanding which pieces of content are resonating the most with your audience. Analytics can vary per program, but most pages need about 10+ blogs before they can begin to calculate how they are doing. Think of these numbers as a digital display to the success of your content.

Study the competition

Once you’ve established the building blocks of your content – keywords, SEO, and analytics—get to know your competitors.Why You Need Content Marketing If you are not aware of what they are doing, what types of content and conversations they are starting, how can you keep up? As with anything, there is a lot of competition for artists. But by seeing what everyone else is doing, you can make sure your content is fresh.

Build relationships

Relationships, relationships, relationships. We can’t stress this enough. Put yourself out there and align your brand with different bloggers, influencers, and marketers. This gives you access to the audience that you want to achieve and secures better positioning for your brand. But these relationships have to be authentic, or your content falls flat. Your goal here should be to have your content shared, retweeted, republished, and mentioned. This rule doesn’t change when you are an artist building your content marketing. But it could become more valuable as others share and attribute your art and subsequent products.

Maintain a content calendar

When diving into content marketing, content calendars are invaluable. You put your personal life in a calendar, so why wouldn’t you also put your brand’s content presence in one? By using tools such as Smartsheet, Airtable, Monday.com (to name a few of the dozens available), you can rest assured that your content will post when necessary. These tools also simplify viewing and editing your content. To make matters even easier, you can create your own template via Google Presentation or Keynote. Better yet? Hire an agency like Webberboss to take it off your plate. Because who has time for another calendar to keep track of?

Develop a content marketing strategy

Content marketing is just blogging unless you develop a content marketing strategy. Before you can begin building out your content calendar, you need to have a plan. Who do you hope to reach? What is the goal of your content? Are you leading your industry on this content or only joining the conversation? Other considerations will be unique to your business as well, such as key dates for your company and specific people and products you want to highlight. You should also keep in mind the time of year and what is happening in current events (if relevant). Just another reason, “Why You Need a Content Marketing Agency in Your Pocket This Year.”

Build a social media following

When you’re building out your calendar and strategy, you also want to consider building your social media following. This is no small feat and, like growing relationships, takes work. It may seem like a Catch 22, but the better content you produce, the larger your audience will grow. Likewise, the larger your audience, the better able you are to grow your content. Forbes’ How to Build a Social Following list offers great advice like following likeminded people/brands and providing education with entertainment. But the key here is to have content strategy goals and to produce quality over quantity. When your audience sees the value you create, they will continue to follow you and ideally spread the word.

Know your audience

Next comes knowing your audience. You may have a vague idea of who you want to reach (single moms, stay-at-home dads, working millennials). But without data, those words are worthless. Not every company can afford to conduct focus groups at first, but most everyone can afford to play around with demographic analytics. You can use tools like Google Analytics Audience and Acquisition tabs, Facebook Business Page Insights, and Subreddit Forum search to follow the analytics of your content. You may even be surprised who your biggest audience is.

Go beyond the post

The worst thing you can do for your content and your business is to let it become stale. The Internet is a fast-paced environment where fresh content and breaking news gets old in seconds. To keep your content working for you, you’ll need to utilize the relationships you’ve built. Don’t be afraid to go beyond the first place you post your content. Going beyond the post means sharing your content (better yet, having others share it) and interacting with it outside of your original posting place. This allows you to stay relevant and also continue the conversation with comments, mentions, etc. For artists, networks like Instagram and Pinterest—where images are the focus—could make a huge difference in your exposure.

Set up your content to go viral

To set up content to go viral, you need to be strategic with your content from the get-go. For example, if your art uses recycled materials, you can mention the company whose materials you re-use. You might tag influencers who are already using your product—especially if they’re organic and not sponsored. Or you can even talk about a competitor (although preferably not too direct) who you think is doing a great job in your field. These mentions only help to expand the radius of where your post can reach.

Include a call-to-action

A piece of content is arguably not complete without a Call-to-Action or CTA. What is the goal of your piece? Do you want to raise awareness of your art? Build your audience? Spread the word about a new product that you offer? Increase sales? If you are unclear on the goal of your piece, your audience will be as well.

Own and create variety

When thinking of what types of content to produce, consider what fits within your industry. But also think outside the box. Just as art encompasses many different things, so does content marketing. True, most of these tips apply to blog posts. But that doesn’t mean you can’t create meaningful content by sending out newsletters or hosting a podcast. Many of the rules still apply in these examples, such as researching keywords, creating valuable content, knowing your audience, and having a call-to-action. The biggest takeaway is to own and create variety in your content.

Curate meaningful content

Lastly, content is a form of storytelling, and, as such, you need to create meaningful and valuable content. Always assume that your audience is intelligent but still find ways to educate them. They may not know who you are or why you exist, so tell them in unique and exciting ways. Producing content that is relevant to your brand, highlights your strengths, adds something to the conversation, and sets you apart is not easy but is necessary. Do your research, utilize the tips above, but also create content that you are proud of. And although it should go without mentioning, editing is often just as important as writing in terms of creating a valuable piece.

Content marketing for artistis doesn’t have to be a chore

If you want to establish an audience, attract new customers, keep fans coming back, and boost sales, then content marketing is your ticket. If the above information didn’t make it clear, it’s hard work and involves research, time and patience. But it’s also often the difference between a brand’s success and failure.

If you’re running a company or its marketing department, you are likely inundated with to-dos. As an artist, you are also honing your craft, making real-world connections, and trying to balance time to create and time to build your business. All that said, content marketing might be the furthest thing from your mind. Luckily there are resources available to you, mostly just a click away on the internet. Even better, hiring a professional agency like Webberboss can take the headache out of content marketing so you can focus on your craft.

Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) is increasingly prioritised across digital marketing departments and agencies, simply because of its impact on a company’s bottom line. In fact, CRO could justifiably Reasons every marketer should care of conversion rates be regarded as the “magic bullet” of the modern online marketing world and has a similar stature to that of SEO just 10 years ago. Everyone is talking about it – and everybody wants to learn how to improve their rates. All of a sudden, every single agency out there boasts at least one CRO expert or specialist.

The main reason for CRO’s appeal is that even tiny improvements in conversion rates can mean whopping profits; if your techniques work, then the pay-off can be immediate. It helps to see the visitors who land on your home page as an investment. As your conversion rate increases, you’ll achieve an improved ROI. Today’s advanced web analytics can detail how customers are interacting with your page and when they’re dropping off. In the end, it’s more cost effective to study ways of guiding these visitors through your funnel than to draw new people to your website.

Thankfully there’s plenty of useful instructional material out there – including webinars, ebooks, blog posts and YouTube walk-throughs. However, sometimes you need to pull yourself away from the daily grind, to learn from the experts and communicate directly with other online marketers in real life. The problem is that mastering this field requires you to be a polymath and develop skills in design, UX, analytics, copywriting, statistics, testing, psychology and persuasion and qualitative and quantitative research. It can take many years to become truly competent.

A big fallacy about CRO that persists today is the over-emphasis on testing ideas at random. DIYers like to experiment with contact forms or making a particular button on their landing page more prominent – but this approach can actually turn out to be a massive waste of time, money and traffic. In reality, the best optimisation work is data-driven. Testing should be carried on out a data-backed hypothesis that comes from both qualitative and quantitative research, in addition to heuristic analysis. Above all, CRO is a process. You need a methodology, or you’re doing it wrong hence Reasons every marketer should care of conversion rates.